


Climbing with Erika

by wheel_pen



Series: Viridian Trip [8]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fish out of Water, Imprinting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-13
Packaged: 2017-12-08 10:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On leave on Earth, Jon goes climbing with his old friend Erika, aka Captain Hernandez. And his new friend Trip, whom Erika is very curious about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Climbing with Erika

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Viridians appear human, but are actually aliens who imprint on other people (Viridian or otherwise) and form a bond with them. They also live their entire life cycle in about six Earth years.
> 
> 2\. In each series, a different character is a Viridian, who was raised by mean Klingons on an outpost. An Enterprise crewmember is captured by the Klingons and they inadvertently form a bond with the Viridian, who helps them escape. Then they return to rescue the Viridian and bring them aboard the Enterprise. The Viridian homeworld is contacted and the Enterprise crew learn the Viridian will most likely die if they are sent away. So they end up staying on the Enterprise, and the crewmember has to adjust.
> 
> 3\. The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

_"I've just been taking Trip on a tour of San Francisco."_

_"Trip and I are going back to the Lakes, to see my old hometown."_

_"Trip and I are going climbing tomorrow. You can join us if you want to."_

Captain Erika Hernandez shook her head as she adjusted her backpack and continued her trek to the foot of the mountains. She didn't begrudge Jon Archer or his crew their shore leave as _Enterprise_ was repaired and retrofitted with the latest technology in a spacedock high above Starfleet Headquarters. They'd certainly earned it, with all the adventures they'd had in the past three years. But this Trip fellow, she couldn't figure out. And he was stuck to Jon like glue, so she hadn't had a chance to get him alone and ask discreetly.

The most reasonable thing she could come up with on her own was a romantic relationship, but that explanation just didn't feel quite right to her. Although she wasn't sure what rank this Trip had, he was on the crew of the _Enterprise_ \--which made Jon his superior officer, and relationships like _that_ were strictly frowned upon. Not that they didn't still happen, of course, and if any captain would be given an unofficial pass for it, it would be the captain of the first warp 5 starship out in deep space. Still, Jon had made enough of a fuss about the relationship between he and _Erika_ being "inappropriate," all those years ago, when he was First Officer and she was just a lieutenant.

Besides which, Trip just didn't seem like Jon's type—male, for example, but even given that, Erika would have expected Jon to fall for someone a little more… assertive. Trip—last name unknown, by the way—had said barely a word to Erika during their admittedly brief meetings, though he acted friendly enough, and seemed to busy himself by carrying Jon's coat, fetching him drinks, and otherwise waiting on him. So, not a very "friend" –like relationship, either.

But apparently they didn't require being alone, as Jon had freely invited her to spend a couple days rock climbing with them in the Valley. Well, Erika Hernandez was the captain of the _second_ warp 5 starship, soon to be exploring deep space, so she decided she ought to be able to handle one more Earth-bound mystery.

Jon greeted her heartily at the foot of the first cliff, which Trip was staring up at contemplatively. After a few opening pleasantries, Erika queried of him, "So, when did you first take up climbing?"

"I haven't yet," Trip replied cheerfully.

Erika blinked at him. "You've never been climbing before."

"Nope," Trip agreed. "I'm sure I'll love it, though."

"Maybe you'd rather start out on a less challenging face," Erika suggested tactfully. She would grade the cliff they were about to ascend as moderately difficult, and they would only get tougher the higher they went. She and Jon had years of climbing experience and she had been looking upon this as a pleasant test to see if she'd gotten rusty in the last couple of years.

"Nah, this looks great," Trip insisted, with the enthusiasm of the inexperienced.

Erika intended to sidle up to Jon and ask him just what the h—l he was thinking, but Trip beat her there, and Jon didn't appear to have any worries about the day. Once they started climbing, Erika was forced to admit that for a newcomer, Trip was pretty good—a fast learner at least, and not one to complain. Her trepidation began to ease, although her curiosity increased.

"Come here, look at this," Jon said about halfway up the cliff, and both Trip and Erika swung over to him. He was holding a hand scanner near a small ledge that carried the imprint of a large paw in the sand. "It's a mountain lion track. About three days old."

"Ooh, mountain lion," Trip repeated, with some excitement. "Do you think we'll see it?"

"I hope not," Jon told him with a smile. "It's a large predator." Trip did not seem particularly dissuaded by this information. Erika spent the next few meters contemplating where Trip might be from, that he hadn't heard of mountain lions.

The next time they reached an easier spot, she decided to ask. "So, Trip, where are you from?" She was guessing somewhere in the south of the old United States, from his accent.

"What do you mean?" the young man replied, genuinely confused.

Erika glanced upwards to see Jon waiting for them, a smirk on his face like he knew something she didn't. "I mean—where were you born?"

"Oh," Trip remarked pleasantly. "I don't remember." And with that he bounced away to the next handhold.

Erika spent the _next_ few meters contemplating the great strides that had been made in the welfare of those born with learning disabilities, while simultaneously wondering how Trip had managed to function on a starship if he couldn't handle simple small talk. And considering the fact that maybe he was just being some kind of a smarta-s.

"Where did you grow up?" she tried again, about half an hour later.

" _Enterprise_ ," Trip told her, and this time his expression said he was _definitely_ being evasive. Not to mention the fact that his answer didn't make a h—l of a lot of sense.

"We should camp here tonight," Jon suggested, derailing further conversation on this topic.

It turned out that Trip actually _had_ been camping before, at least, on a couple of planets that _Enterprise_ had visited. Jon started off with stories of those adventures—because even something like camping was an adventure when you were doing it on an alien planet—and before too long both he and Erika were talking up a storm, about people they knew and things they had seen during the three years they'd been apart. It wasn't until darkness fell and Erika's stomach began to growl that she realized she and Jon had been sitting on rocks chatting for a couple of hours—while _Trip_ had set up the entire camp, built a fire, _and_ made dinner.

"Jon!" she chastised her old friend, well within earshot of Trip, "you've kept me here gabbing when we could have been helping him!"

"No, no," Trip assured her, "I'm fine. Here, see how this tastes."

He had somehow taken their daily ration packs and fashioned a stew that tasted like something Erika would order in one of the nicer restaurants in San Francisco. "My G-d, this is amazing," she announced, almost involuntarily. Trip's face lit up. "What is it you _do_ on _Enterprise_ exactly?" she continued to probe as they ate. "Do you work in the galley?"

"No, Chef's pretty protective of the kitchens on the ship," Trip told her. "I've just been learning to cook the past week or so, since we moved into our apartment in San Francisco."

_Our_ apartment. They were living together? Even off-ship? Erika added this bit of information to her storehouse. Enlisted people, she could see, especially given the real estate prices in San Francisco, but Jon could easily afford his own place. So they had to be living together out of choice.

Erika realized her question had never been answered and, even though the moment had passed somewhat, she felt the need to press. "So on _Enterprise_ you do…" She wondered if he would actually have the nerve to answer, "the Captain."

"Oh, a little bit of everything," Trip replied vaguely. Jon seemed in no hurry to help either of them. "I work in Engineering a lot, and I help the doctor in Sickbay sometimes, and I've been learning to pilot the ship. Oh, and Hoshi's been teaching me a lot about communications and languages. Say, you wanna hear a joke?"

Trip apparently could remember every joke he'd ever been told, but fortunately they were all hilarious. By the time they all decided to go to bed, Erika's sides hurt from laughing. It wasn't until about half an hour later, in her sleeping bag in her tent, that she realized she'd been successfully outmaneuvered in her queries. The thought sharpened her determination to discover what exactly was going on here and she quietly unzipped her tent, peering out at the other two that had been set up. Vague shadows moved in each, indicating they were sleeping separately—tonight, at least.

She gave Jon a while to settle down, then slipped out of her tent and snuck across the campsite to his own. She didn't have a good excuse prepared if she should get "caught," which to Erika meant—don't get caught. Carefully she unzipped Jon's tent and crept in, barely avoiding his sleeping bag. She was just reaching out a hand to shake his shoulder when he said, "I was wondering when you would get over here," and she nearly screamed herself.

She glared at him but felt the effect was probably lost in the dark, although she could imagine the self-satisfied smile on his face well enough. "Well, maybe you can just tell me what's going on," Erika insisted, slightly grumpy.

"We're camping," Jon replied pleasantly and she knew she was being teased.

"What is going on with you and—him?" she persisted, keeping her voice at a whisper.

"Trip?"

Erika rolled her eyes. "Of course."

"It's complicated."

Well wasn't it always. "I mean, who _is_ this guy? And—would you rather _he_ was in your tent now, instead of me?"

Jon propped himself up on one elbow and reached his other hand out to her in the dark, taking her arm. His hand felt warm on her cool skin, reminding her how much the temperature dropped at night in the Valley. "Actually," he said after a moment, "if you _weren't_ here, he probably _would_ be in my tent." Erika's eyebrows shot up. "But it's not what you think."

"I can't think of too many other things it could be," she admitted.

"He's kind of like… my bodyguard," Jon decided, rubbing the goose bumps on her arm. "And my butler, if you can imagine me with a butler."

"Bodyguard? _Butler_?"

"And he's also kind of like Porthos. You remember Porthos, don't you?"

"Jon, are you drunk?" Erika accused, and he laughed softly.

"I told you it was complicated," he reminded her. "I met him on a planet out in deep space. He'd been raised—enslaved, really—by this group of Klingons." Erika heard the edge in his voice. "We helped each other escape. His species forms this strong bond—"

"His _species_?" Erika interrupted. "He isn't _human_?"

"No."

"Well, G-d… I thought he was from Florida!"

Jon's laughter threatened to wake the subject of their conversation. It was good to hear him laugh again, though. "His species forms a strong bond with another person who's helped them somehow. They call it imprinting."

"Like ducklings on their mother?"

"Actually, almost exactly," Jon smiled. "So now I'm stuck with him," he added lightly, and his tone indicated he wasn't exactly unhappy about that. "If I sent him away it would probably kill him. That's the kind of… _other thing_ you run into in deep space."

Erika thought about that for a moment, then shivered involuntarily. Jon tugged lightly on her arm. "You should get under the covers if you're going to stay here longer," he teased flirtatiously.

"Trip's not going to get jealous?" she prodded, although she was beginning to follow his advice.

"Definitely not," he assured her. "In fact…" A shadow moved past the tent and continued out of the clearing. "…I think Trip is going for a little walk in the woods, so we have the whole campsite to ourselves for a while."

"Do you two have some kind of telepathy or something?" Erika asked suspiciously.

"Something," Jon told her.

The next morning everyone was back in their respective tent, or at least Trip _had_ been until he'd gotten up to make breakfast. Erika stumbled out to the fire and immediately accepted a cup of coffee to warm the chill air. "How do you like your eggs, ma'am?" Trip asked politely, canister of powdered egg protein in hand.

"If you're going to use that stuff… scrambled," Erika decided. "And you don't have to call me 'ma'am'."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied with a bit of a smile, mixing the powder with some water before pouring it into the frying pan over the fire.

"So, what is your species called, exactly?" she finally questioned.

Erika couldn't tell if his hesitation indicated surprise that Jon had told her anything, or the fact that he really had to think to remember. "Viridian," he told her after a moment.

"You have a remarkable resemblance to humans," she added, not certain if that was considered a polite comment or not.

Trip didn't seem to mind. "Thank you." He carefully stirred her eggs, throwing in a little bit of cheese and dried herbs. "It's all external, though. Everything inside's different."

"Really."

"Yup. And I have a much shorter lifespan."

"Really." Erika peered at him over her coffee cup. "How long do your people usually live?"

Trip scraped the eggs out of the pan and onto a plate for her. "About six Earth years."

She nearly spewed her coffee on her eggs. "Six years?! How old are you now?"

"About two and a half."

"Wow. Interesting. And how long have you known Jon?"

"About a year." Which was one-sixth of his life, Erika decided. Equivalent to about sixteen or seventeen years, with the average human lifespan. She swallowed some of the eggs thoughtfully. They were, expectedly, delicious.

He was making another batch, with different ingredients. "How are you having yours?" Erika asked, out of friendly curiosity.

"These aren't for me," he answered cheerfully. "Captain'll be up in a minute. And he's going to want his with cheddar and a little parsley." Sure enough, there was a rustling in Jon's tent and he finally crawled out, bleary-eyed.

"Well good morning, sleepyhead," Erika taunted him. "Join the party."

Jon rubbed a hand through his hair and tried to will himself to be more awake. The cup of coffee Trip set in his hand helped.

"So how did you get the name Trip, anyway?" Erika continued. "Is it short for something?"

"No, ma'am, that's just what I've always been called," he explained, scraping the eggs from the frying pan onto a plate.

"Oh, you're making eggs?" Jon inserted, just now noticing. "Any chance you've got any, I don't know, parsley, or at least cheddar?"

"Yes," Trip replied, greatly satisfied, handing Jon a plate.

"I thought you were from Florida," Erika offered, waiting for the moment when Jon was about to swallow some eggs. He proceeded to choke on it, just a little.

Trip watched him with concern until he calmed down and continued eating. "Florida? Where's that?"

"It's on the other side of the old United States, even further south."

"Why did you think I was from there?" Trip questioned curiously, sitting back on his heels.

Erika felt a little silly all of a sudden. "Oh, no reason. I guess, your—accent, it sounds kind of… Southern to me."

"Hmmm." Trip seemed to think this over. "Maybe I should just tell people I'm from Florida."

"You're not," Jon pointed out. "And you're not supposed to drink coffee, either," he added, nodding suspiciously at the cup Trip was clutching.

"I'm not drinking it, I'm just holding it," he protested. "I'm just _smelling_ it."

"Well if you _drink_ it, you're going to be sick," Jon reminded him. "And then you won't be able to climb, and I'm going to leave you here." The response sounded unnecessarily mean to Erika, but Trip just narrowed his eyes as if he'd heard this threat before and didn't really believe it.

"If you left me here," Trip decided, "that ol' mountain lion would probably get you. You gotta bring me along to make sure that doesn't happen."

"You don't think I could take a mountain lion?" Jon asked, mock-indignant.

"With your bare hands? I don't think so."

Erika rolled her eyes. Boys were boys even if they came from distant planets, she supposed.


End file.
